Xenophane ̄s of Kolopho ̄n (540? – 478? BCE)
Born ca 570 BCE, an itinerant Greek bard and philosopher, criticized traditional claims about
the gods as inconsistent with the concept of the divine. Rather than accepting that gods
are like humans and behave in all-too-human ways, he claimed god was a single divine
force: “One god is greatest among gods and men, not at all like mortals in body or in
thought... whole he sees, whole he thinks, and whole he hears... but completely without
toil he shakes all things by the thoughts of his mind” (B23, 24, 25). Xenophane ̄s rejected
the notion that there is divine communication to human beings, claiming instead that
through inquiry humans can “discover better” (B18). Recognizing possible skeptical con-
sequences of this claim, he nevertheless offered naturalistic explanations of meteorological
phenomena based on a theory about clouds: the rainbow and St. Elmo’s fire are not divine
messages: both are explainable as kinds of cloud (fragment B32: “She whom they call iris
(rainbow), this too is by nature cloud, purple, red, and greenish yellow to see”). Indeed the
Sun, Moon and all luminous celestial phenomena are clouds in various states. The Earth is
flat (like a column drum) and extends unlimitedly outwards and downwards. Thus the Sun
does not travel under the Earth as earlier theories had claimed: it is new each day and is
cloud fed by exhalations from the Earth, traveling across the sky until it expires. Both the
content of his scientific theories (he made claims instrumental for later Greek discoveries in
astro-physics) and the epistemological problems generated by his rejection of divine inter-
vention and warrant for knowledge influenced later thinkers, especially H and
P.
Ed.: DK 21, J.H. Lesher, Xenophanes of Colophon (1992).
ECP 570 – 573, J.H. Lesher; SEP “Xenophanes,” Idem; A.P.D. Mourelatos, “La Terre et les étoiles dans
la cosmologie de Xénophane,” in A. Laks and C. Louguet, edd. Qu’est-ce que la Philosophie présocratique?
(2002) 331–350; A.P.D. Mourelatos “Xenophanes’ Contribution to the Explanation of the Moon’s
Light,” Philosophia 32 (2002) 47–59; Idem, “The Cloud-astrophysics of Xenophanes and Ionian
Material Monism,” in Patricia Curd and D.W. Graham, The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy
(forthcoming).
Patricia Curd
Xenophilos of Khalkidike ̄ (375 – 325 BCE)
Musical theorist of the last generation of Pythagoreans, who is cited by different sources
as teacher of A. According to D L 8.46, he was born in
Khalkis of Thrake ̄ (whose real existence, however, has been put in doubt by some archae-
ologists), and was active, probably in Athens, in the mid-4th c. BCE. According to P
7.168, he reached an age of 105 years.
KP 5.1421 (#3), R. Engel; NP 12/2.632 (#2), R. Harmon.
E. Rocconi
Xenopho ̄n of Athens (400 – 355 BCE)
Born ca 430 – 425 BCE, soldier, mercenary, known especially for his historical writings. He
studied under So ̄crate ̄s to whom he dedicated his Apology, Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, and
Symposium. Among the Ten Thousand Greeks supporting Cyrus II’s rebellion against his
brother the Persian king Artaxerxe ̄s II, Xenopho ̄n commanded the rearguard. Although the
Greeks were victorious at Kunaxa (401 BCE), Cyrus was killed, and the mercenaries, without
XENOPHO ̄N OF ATHENS